News Summary of Collaboration and Shared Services from 9th April 2014

 I mentioned last week that the new LGA Shared Services Map for 2014 has been published and it can be found here - www.local.gov.uk/shared-services-map

Alasdair Robertson, who teaches on the Shared Service Business Case seminars, is weaving his statistical magic over the map at the moment and we will bring his “deep dive” findings next week.

If you are one of the 25 councils who did not put figures into the map, and you would like to do so, email productivity@local.gov.uk and they will help.

Local Government

Christmas has come early for councils involved in developing services where they “put the user first” (They’ve been reading John Seddon’s books at last!).

CLG have announced £410m of funding (some of which looks repackaged), dividing it up into key areas, many of which are based around collaborative working:

• £1 million in 2013 to 2014 for 9 local authorities working with the Public Service Transformation Network to speed up and scale up their transformation plans
• £6 million in 2013 to 2014 for 13 local authorities who narrowly missed out on funding in the 2013 to 2014 Transformation Challenge Award bidding process
• a total of £83 million of unused capitalisation provision has also been transferred to councils in 2013 to 2014 which provides additional revenue for every authority to invest in local service integration and transformation. The unused capitalisation provision will be distributed to all authorities in line with the formula for councils’ Start Up Funding Assessments
• £15 million Transformation Challenge Award 2014 to 2015 to support local authorities working with partners across the public service to transform services, including smaller districts who wish to share management teams
• £105 million Transformation Challenge Award 2015 to 2016 and £200 million capital receipt flexibility in 2015 to 2016, to support local authorities working with partners across the public service to transform services

It could be helpful to your colleagues to use a tiny proportion of the money to build their skills and knowledge in collaborative working through the Shared Service Practitioner or Collaborative Leadership Programmes to accelerate their success in these kinds of projects. Here are full details of the announcement…

£410 million for council services that put people first

Eric Pickles announces £410 million in funding to help councils transform the way they run local services to put the user first. Read more >>>

The collaborative working problems in LEPs are beginning to very publicly bubble up to the surface. We have approached, without success, many LEPs about building the skills and capacity of LEP managers to be successful in their collaborative working across the many agencies and businesses involved. After all, these are multi-million pound, multi-partner, multi-culture collaboration projects and need specific skills sets to deliver them. So, no surprise then when another example of LEP partners publicly falling out appears in the press. This would probably not happen if a skilled SSA or SS(PRAC) were managing the relationships…

LEP row exposed by leaked emails

Strained relationships between members of a local enterprise partnership (LEP) have been exposed by leaked emails. One email revealed that Warwickshire CC’s Chief Executive Jim Graham had accused Coventry City Council of being desperate and working to the detriment of the rest of the region. Read more >>>

In a tilt at Eric Pickles’ “50 Ways To Save” paper, Warrington Council have published their list of how they have saved £50m. It’s a good checklist that fits well with the Efficiency Matrix tool. I will be using this tomorrow with 20 Finance Officers in Hertfordshire…

Warrington Council publishes ‘50 ways to save £50m’ list

Warrington Borough Council has produced its own ‘50 ways to save’ list, which has enabled the council to save £50m. Read more >>>

We have a soft-spot for Cherwell and South Northamptonshire Councils. Not only did they put both their senior management teams through our Shared Service Practitioner programme, they also put 12 senior managers through the Postgraduate Certificate in Shared Services. As a result they are effectively, and rapidly, developing a number of shared service projects…

Two councils share management of environmental services

Cherwell District Council and South Northamptonshire Council are now sharing environmental services, reducing the number of senior managers and saving £200,000 a year. Read more >>>

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Health

The health and social care collaboration between councils and the health organisations seems to be stumbling. I mentioned last week about the concern of health partners when councils are spending the social care budgets on up-stream activity to prevent down-stream social care being required. The debate over money, and its purpose, rumbles on in this article…

Call for merged 'super' health and care budget

A merged NHS and social-care budget in England is needed to stop vulnerable people falling into the gaps between the two services, experts say. Read more >>>

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Blue Lights

I had a delightful two days of serious learning, and lots of laughter, at Greater Manchester Police a couple of weeks ago. They put 17 of their project team through the Shared Service Practitioner Programme to equip them for Blue Light Transformation projects. I even learned a new phrase “Wooden Dollars”. It is a euphemism for the phantom money which is cross-charged between departments within an organisation. In these three news stories you can see the steady growth of collaborative working across Blue Light Services…

Police in three East of England counties to share ICT

Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Police are planning to implement a shared ICT system using money from the Precursor Police Innovation Fund. Read more >>>

New ‘safety and protection team’ created as merger of Northamptonshire Police and Northants Fire & Rescue Service moves closer

A new combined police and fire community ‘safety and protection team’ has been created as part of the latest move towards full integration of Northamptonshire Police and Northants Fire & Rescue service. Read more >>>

South East Regional Organised Crime Unit launches

Regional organised crime units across the south and south east of England come together as a single organisation from 1 April. Read more >>>

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